The invention relates generally to gasifiers, and more particularly to a quench chamber assembly for a gasifier and a dip tube positioned therein.
In a normal coal gasification process, wherein a particulated carbonaceous fuel such as coal or coke or a carbonaceous gas is burned, the process is carried out at relatively hot temperatures and high pressures in a combustion chamber. When injected fuel is burned or partially burned in the combustion chamber, an effluent is discharged through a port at a lower end of the combustion chamber to a quench chamber disposed downstream of the combustion chamber. The quench chamber contains a liquid coolant such as water. The effluent from the combustion chamber is contacted with the liquid coolant in the quench chamber, so as to reduce the temperature of the effluent.
When the fuel is a solid such as coal or coke, the gasifier arrangement permits a solid portion of the effluent, in the form of ash, to be retained in the liquid pool of the quench chamber, and subsequently to be discharged as slag slurry. A gaseous component of the effluent is discharged from the quench chamber for further processing.
A general trend in gasification systems is towards larger gasification components so as to increase throughput. Increasing the amount of syngas produced calls for the increase in size of each system component. With this concomitant increase in component size, one area of interest is the dynamic behavior of water in the quench chamber in conjunction with the gas flow resulting in syngas flow, pressure, and level fluctuations.
There is a need for an improved quench chamber assembly that improves on fluid dynamics of current quench chamber designs including the dip tube therein.